Question of the Day: Do You Use Google Now on Tap?

At Google I/O last year, one of the highlights of the entire show was without a doubt the demo for Google Now on Tap. During the brief performance, if you will, Google showed that Google Now had grown into an on demand-like service that was capable of doing more than just anticipating your day. Instead, Google Now had grown to be able to analyze a current screen and then provide relevant information in a matter of seconds.

What kinds of information? For one, it can read an email asking about a restaurant or movie suggestion before providing you with shortcuts to IMDB or Flixster or OpenTable or Yelp. It can bring up more information about a person mentioned in a text message. It is also able to understand vague questions based on current conditions, like it could tell you the lead singer of the band whose song is playing, simply by asking, “Who’s the lead singer?”

Google Now on Tap is a Marshmallow-only feature, so at this time, there aren’t a lot of people with access to it. With that said, for those who do have access to it, we’re curious if any of you are using it. Can you share some examples of when or why you brought it up? Are you using it daily or is more of a here or there type of action? Is it now a feature you can’t live without? Or are you like me, and have yet to use it in a real world situation?

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feztheforeigner

Don’t have Marshmallow. Silly Verizon Galaxy S6….

2tor

Seems more of a hassle to use than anything else. I know what it does, but I’m not sure what purpose it serves

Almajsapp4

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Ana

I used it once to try it but after that practically never because I don’t remember it’s there.

Bobby Wright

Maybe twice a day at most.

Trevor

Never used it, other than just to mess around and see if it did anything a handful of times.

Ralph Basile

Never have. Honestly, I would like the swipe up for Google Now. I use Google Now all the time, but have never once thought of using Tap.

Marco Pérez

Never, waste of resources

CHRIS42060

I did not at first…… I actually forgot it existed. After reading more about it I really made a conscious effort to use it and now I use it a lot.

Sharkh20

Nope

T_Dizzle

On Tap, what’s that? Answer the question 🙂

Gr8Ray

Only accidentally, usually when I’m trying to copy something from a website.

Jérôme Besnard

I mostly forget the feature is there. Until I don’t and I’m glad that day I remember.

Lee W.

Google Now definitely. On Tap, atm I really just use it to quickly google word definitions if I don’t know them.

Me too. I believe you can bring it back if you disable Now on Tap. Just FYI. 🙂

Brett W

I can barely get Google Now to work right, when I even remember I have it.

Brett W

Seriously, if anyone knows how to get Google Now to stop glitching every single damn time I go to search for something, I’d be eternally grateful. I start typing, 2 seconds later it glitches and reloads, thus cutting off anything I was doing. Extremely irritating and has made Google Now essentially useless for me.

It’s surprising how many people don’t understand why Google removed the swipe up feature.
It’s fairly obvious to me that Now on Tap needs more data from us to become more useful and most people I see online are resistant to using Now on Tap.
If they would have kept both gestures, I’m sure an incredibly high percentage of people would keep using Google Now and make no effort to use On Tap.
Now that people are using On tap (not a lot, but surely more than it would have been without removing the Swipe up feature) I’ve seen On Tap continue to become more useful and I expect that trend to continue.

jer85008

Not really. I try it out every now and then but it still seems like it’s not quite ready.

Egnimatic_Foolishness

I use it rather frequently. Screenshots that I don’t want to remain on my phone, when an actor or celebrity comes up in a text and I don’t know who they are, when someone sends me an address I’ll use it to navigate to the address directly and occasionally to set appointments in my calendar.
It’s not the end all, be all that we expected last year but I’m satisfied with it.

It takes a modicum of effort to retrain your self but after that, it’s been pretty seamless to use.

I only use it for the screenshot feature. The rest is just to show people “Hey check this cool thing”

charlesrutherford

I think on the Nexus 6P, it’s the only way to access Google Now? I don’t have the swipe up function like I did in Lollipop.

steve

yes, but mostly for the screenshot feature

Stabby McKnifington

I try to use it but it never seems to bring back anything or anything of relevance. Even when I remember it seems to ignore anything on the screen.

Callum Davenport-Lambton

I have never seen it give me any useful contextual info. The only thing i use it for is to get to the full Google now. Preferred the old way Google now worked.

Paul

No.

jimt

Haven’t actually used it.

McStagger

No, and i use Google Now less because i cant long press the home button. they should allow a long press from home screen to go straight to Google Now and save Google On Tap for when in apps.

CabbageHeadCat.

I don’t use it nearly as much as Google Now. I do use it about 15% of the time. Usually for quick info about an email subject or movie times. More entertainment, but still useful.

dcdttu

I use it to take screenshots because it removes the navigation buttons from the resulting image. That’s about it.

guestisamessedguess

Unfortunately, no. I don’t know when its useful to use it…

bogy25

No I never do

pizzaparties

I use it all the time and I really love it. If a friend texts me a bar or restaurant, I can easily find out where it is or how to get there. If someone asks if I’ve seen a movie and I want to look it up the same. I probably use it a few times a week. I’m a fan.

pizzaparties

I also really like being able to share screenshots without saving them!

This is the one thing i wish Google had left out of Marshmallow. I used the “swipe up from home” feature hourly to enter google now (i use Nova launcher). on the 5X, i hated that missing. I already use the Nova built in “swipe of feature” for opening the app drawer. and yet, i always forget on tap exists, and i go to swipe up, it does nothing, i go “argh”, then i have to manually find the “Google now” app and open it. i hate it. and i can’t find a way to work it into my daily mobile usage.

MacNificent

I do miss the swipe up gesture. But the ability to send a screenshot to someone and it not be in my phone is awesome

sagisarius

I used it on my Nexus 9 when it first came out… it didn’t really do much. Has it gotten any better?

Bret Gregory

No, I never use this feature. It’s completely useless and wasted time. And I hate hate hate that Appled us all by yanking away the swipe up feature to access Google Now. So I just stuck a shortcut to it on the home screen. Screw Apple, I mean Google.

Fabian Schwendenwein

At first glance I was just so damn hyped about that. I used it literally every time it could’ve been needed.
But after time passed i just use it for Spotify (to get information about an artist or something like that) or, more often in Twitter. That’s basically it. IMO the feature hasn’t played out it’s full potential just yet, but I’m positive it will in the near future!

Nick V

I am a huge Google Now fanatic, but I never remember that On Tap is available. Google needs to remedy this.

Used it a few times and while it does work correctly, the depth isn’t there to merit common usage. All it offers me every time is a shortcut to Google search on the broad topic it senses, or a YouTube link to a relevant video.

ramifications

Nope! I tried it a few times at first and it never gave me anything useful… So I stopped using it. Now, I only press it by accident… and of course nothing is found lol.

Kenny Rousseau

I use it about once a week and am always insanely glad I have it

Gfame103

Only used it twice, it didn’t work so I never used it again.

Brian Worhatch

I don’t ever have a reason to use it. I don’t mention movies or restaurants in messages.

Angelo Davis

I use it all the time in Reddit and on Twitter. I find it’s more useful for both of those and less useful emails and messaging.

卯ノ花 烈, ® ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ ᵃᶜᶜᵒᵘᶰᵗ

I use it every once in awhile.. I do use the screen share function a lot more almost daily because it doesn’t save the screenshot into your memory just takes and sends it. No more going back into the settings and deleting it.

ramifications

Thank you! I didn’t know that about the screenshot! On tap will be infinitely more useful now!

IHO6858

Same! The only thing I dont like is that it hides the time, so time relevant screenshots still need to be done manually.

Nicole Look-Christensen

I don’t use it and miss the swipe up for Google Now. On Tap is not as useful as they seem to think.

yankeesusa

Once you start using it, it becomes very useful. It works awesome in searches in the browser or when someone sends a text with address or location in it.

i don’t know about you, but i rarely get texts with information i want to quickly go look up. a choice of NO vs. On Tap, would make more sense. or both, hell, one swipes up, one press and hold.

yankeesusa

LOL, it’s not just for texts and everyone uses their phone differently. I was just posting an example. Other uses could be in hangouts or other form of messaging or looking up a song and you select on tap and gives you a way to purchase it or listen to it. Again, it’s just an example. In your case if you don’t do any of this then yes, on tap may not be useful to you. The great thing about android is the choices we have.

Your examples are good ones. And agree that’s the beauty of Android is choice. However, my point is they removed choice from this Now vs. On Tap equation.

yankeesusa

Agreed. They should let you choose whichever one you like most.

mjmedstarved

Install Nova Launcher, and you can set the swipe up gesture to open NOW.

I use it daily.

Scott Ricketts

No, I own an s6 edge.

TS

Nope. Still waiting on s6 marshmallow.

atan420

Not only do I not use it, but I added a custom key to the nav bar for faster access back to google now…. I really miss the swipe up action

Bradon

nope, but I use search from clipboard pop up all the time.

Craig P

I like the screenshot feature, but that’s about it

Cameron Carey

Google Now is great, use it 24/7, but google now on tap has literally never been able to give me any useful information.

Greg Abbate

never used it ever

JLV90

Never use it

High Country

On Tap is probably the fastest way I found to check on my season-long fantasy lineup. Pull up your roster…tap…boom.

Mel Torme

Once I get MM on my MotoX (2014).

JD

I’ve used a number of times in the three weeks I’ve had it, equally for quick sharing screenshots but also looking up info on the screen

DJ SPY

Yes.

Tyler

Nope everytime i do though it’s always like nope. Sometimes i test it to see if it would pull up what i want half the time it doesn’t.

Craig

I never use it. When I remember it’s there it usually doesn’t work or takes an agonizing time to process. I actually miss the quick shortcut to Now.

AwsmJames

I use it a lot actually, not only do I get a lot of music and movie recommendations from friends and family but also I’ve found it useful when I pull up a podcast with an interesting guest, with now on tap I can bring up all there is to know about them instantly. Its pretty sweet

trwb

Hell no. Tried it for a bit and it didn’t pull up anything useful, and plus who wants Google reading your entire screen.

Suicide_Note

What’s the difference? They already read your emails, texts, etc. If you’re that worried about privacy, a smartphone probably isn’t best for you.

trwb

There should be a limit to these types of things though. Google just keeps on wanting more and more. Some of it is ok to me, but they are just getting to be too intrusive.

Chris

I used it to make movie plans with my girlfriend the other night. Asked her if she wanted to see Deadpool at a certain theater and it showed the times for that theater. I also used it to automatically create a calendar event for me. Texted a reminder for the place and date and time and then used On Tap and it created the event. It’s really neat, honestly.

I use it all the time honestly. I didn’t think it would be useful, but anytime I need to look something up that someone texted me, it’s so much nicer than copy/paste.

Albert

I love using it

XvierX

I’ve already become used to using it to take and share screenshots. I use it when using relay fit Reddit. Often I’ll come across a comment that refers to an actor, band, movie, or something trivial like that and it comes in handy. Only problem is that it won’t work 15% of the time.

I just need to get better about using it for screenies. I’m just so used to the volume down+ power…I’ll work on it heh.

cucabueno

Nope… Wish I did. Quite frankly I never think about it.

Matthew Blair

I try to use it. Occasionally it’s helpful but more often than not I get “nothing on tap”.

Brenden Keene

I remembered to use it once when my friend texted me to meet at a restaurant I had never heard of. It worked well and was pretty helpful. But yeah I mostly forget that it’s even there just like I did for Google Now when it originally launched. The GN launcher was pretty much necessary for me to start using it at all, but now I love it.

Rocketdaddy

Yep. More all the time.

LionStone

Had it enabled for the first month or so, then disabled it.

TriguyRN

Only time is when I’m on a famous person’s twitter or instagram and want to quickly jump to another social networking service or their site. Other than that, not reliable enough.

JSo

I would use it more but every time I do, it tells me there’s nothing

Joey Riz

yup always forget it exists to be honest

kirko77

I forget it’s there but sometimes I do. Like when I’m looking at all stock tickers… Lot of useful info with GOT

Andrew Azotea

Nope I forget it’s even there

person

Yes and quite frequently. I search a lot and the search bar in Now on Tap offers the fastest access. When I want to search for something regarding what I’m currently doing (Twitter account for someone being interviewed, information about song/artist I’m listening to, news stories about something mentioned in an article, etc), Now on Tap has a card for it about 80% of the time. Since it uses OCR, I’ve found I can even, occasionally, point my camera at a website and use Now on Tap to quickly pull it up on my phone if I’m not currently signed into that computer to use Chrome’s tab sync. Very useful.

thePromoter

That’s smart!

Gustavo Guiscem Soares

As I use my phone in Brazilian Portuguese, Now on Tap is not available yet. I changed the system language to English but didn’t worth it. It’s a cool feature but I didn’t find any real use for it

Rod

isn’t worth it*

Jprime

Only to screen share

ROB

Use it everyday… Search words and send screenshots to others via Textra

4n1m4L

Not really. Totally miss the swipe up for Google Now though.

JD

I didn’t realize I would miss it so much until it was gone!

Bradon

well, you can hold home to bring up google now if you disable now on tap. that’s almost as good.

epps720

I just created a gesture in Action Launcher 3 where a swipe up on the screen brings up Google Now and a long press on the home button uses Now on Tap (though I’ve never Now on Tap).

JeffColorado

So used to Nova Launcher that I forget the stock launcher doesn’t have custom gesture support.

mjmedstarved

This is the answer.

I use swipe up for NOW, double-tap for Phone, and swipe down for notification bar.

TC Infantino

I would love to have it….. But Marshmallow isn’t out yet for the Droid Turbo 2, or even the OG Turbo.

Mordecaidrake

I would if I could, Verizon hasn’t seen fit to upgrade me yet.

M. Ali Azimi

Nooo

Grayson

Looked amazing in demos, but no lol, I don’t use it at all.

JasonWhite

I just got Marshmallow last week on my G4. Haven’t had a chance to really test it out. Seems neat.

Beran Young

I also forget that I have it until I read something about it. The few times I have used it the results haven’t been what I was looking for.

Jared K

I would if you could swipe up to still use Google Now. I don’t like that I cant easily get to Google Now.

Beran Young

Can’t you just swipe right to open GN?

Jared K

No. I’m using Nova Launcher.

JasonWhite

Noooovaaaa!

Daniel Richardson

You need to setup gestures.. I have swipe up set to launch gooogle now. It works great on Nova

Everyday. You save a lot of typing when searching for something immediately. Very useful!

nachofrand

I use it for the screen shot feature only -_- and that’s not even now on tap

Jpx

Anytime there is an address or number. I have scheduled a couple of meetings/ appointments through it. I also use it for numbers from time to time. But I honestly have to actively remind myself that Google On Tap is a thing

John Motschenbacher

Never had to use it. For me its one of the most useless features on my Nexus

Brandon Harhi

Yes. I find it useful on Twitter and looking at articles on Chrome.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

On Tap is one thing… But if you don’t use Google Now… You’re missing half the use of your phone. Google Now is amazing. *checks Google Now*

Murphy’s Magnet

Did it agree with you when you checked?

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

Sure did!

moew

Those 18 hour old articles are awesome! sigh

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

All those instant sport score updates, pre and post game video links. News that gets pulled in that I don’t have to manually go to individual sites for based on my search habits. And more! Fun stuff.

moew

Now that’s where the magic is… but when I check at work in the morning, I HATE that ARS or ENG 18 hour old article… I already read that one. It’s usually tech/android related.

CabbageHeadCat.

I bet that as well, but there are more unread articles for me now than before

brkshr

I hate that they keep recommending the verge to me! I haven’t clicked on a single article from them. I would think GN would learn.

moew

The Verge – Invoking the spirit of Apple Trolls since 2011!!!

Miguel

I can’t use On Tap since my phone is on Lollipop but I’ve used it like three times on my wife’s Nexus 6, the one thing I always use is Google Now.

Weber

I pretty much only use it for the screenshot feature. The rest of its uses are almost forgotten.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

I just checked…. I had ZERO idea there was a Screenshot feature until now Lol.

Weber

It’s good because you don’t have to save screenshots. The bad part is the file gets compressed very badly in hangouts. Give and take, I guess.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

I think that’s just a Hangouts issue. Why I stopped sending pics through hangouts

Weber

I wish I could, but I finally got everyone to start using it. Now I have to put my tail between my legs and admit my mistake. Even on Fi, I can’t justify using Hangouts anymore.

patt

Nope

lobbo

I use it to quick launch Google now.

Grant Gregory

I use it a fair amount, mostly for quick screen shots that I want to send to someone but would normally delete afterwards

Bob Omb

All the time.

Ricky Ortiz

Nope, I turned it off on my N6P, I missed having the swipe up to get to Google Now

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

I think we can safely say… It’s a Gimmick. Google Now on the other hand I literally use all day. It’s the place I check first, always.

Jacob Mustin

The only good use I’ve found for it is snagging addresses off of web pages and texts and jumping straight to navigation without having to copy paste

Mine doesn’t work that well but neither does my OK Google since I’ve been on the Marshmallow beta on my Note 5, I’ve been having all kinds of connection issues.

burkett375

no

David Imel

I use it occasionally. There are times where I remember that it’s there and it’s decently useful. Hoping they improve on it in Android N to add more functionality.

trixnkix637

When I remember it’s there I do.

Edoardo Maggio

I do from time to time, yes. But most of all I still do the usual, slow operation of opening a new tab and typing the whole damn thing to look for something, only to remember that fml, it would’ve taken a sec. with Now on Tap.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

fartbubbler

I always forget I have it until I read about it somewhere lol

Jerry

I never forget I have it and I make sure it is off. Too much snooping

yankeesusa

LOL, their snooping whether you have it on or not. That’s the nature of the beast. And if you use google now it’s the same thing. If you don’t want to be snooped on then get… oh wait there is no company that doesn’t snoop. Maybe microsoft phone.

I think if they just made it so when you swiped up it went into Google Now and when you long pressed the home button it did Google Now On Tap more people would use it. They just need to build both functions into the same button.

Almajsapp4

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Indianajonze

this. i’m certain i’d use it more if i could just remember it’s there. very difficult to do for some reason